Rethinking organic efficiency: A dynamic analysis of resource trade-offs in Italian agriculture through the FWEE nexus

This paper evaluates whether converting to organic farming delivers resource efficiency once cross-domain trade-offs are measured within the Food–Water–Energy–Environment (FWEE) nexus framework. Using 53,804 Italian crop-farm observations (2015–2022) from FADN, the analysis applies a dynamic difference-in-differences estimator for reversible conversion. Findings show that total energy intensity per euro of adjusted output rises overall, with pronounced and persistent penalties in permanent crops and volatile, only partly reversing spikes in annuals. Irrigation burdens per adjusted output increase during conversion, evidencing tighter water-energy coupling under yield dips. Environmental gains are non-automatic: biodiversity and nitrogen proxies show no consistent improvements, while crop-protection burdens per output often rise. Results imply nexus-aware, system-specific technical support, technology integration,conversion payment mechanisms, and moving beyond input reduction alone to address system heterogeneity, yield gaps, and momentaryinefficiencies through coordinated soil-water-energy management strategies to convert temporary trade-offs into durable synergies for Farm-to-Fork implementation.

BIAGINI Luigi;  SEVERINI Simone;  ANTONIOLI Federico; 

2026-03-05

ELSEVIER BV

JRC144726

1879-0658 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344926000777,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC144726,   

10.1016/j.resconrec.2026.108853 (online),